Recently, John Smith, author of Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis, was asked by Mark Karlin of Truthout / Buzzflash to describe the new, improved state-of-the-art version of imperialism. Same old neocolonialism, updated?
“Mark Karlin: Why did you begin your book with the collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013, which killed more than one thousand exploited garment workers in Bangladesh?
John Smith: Three reasons. First, the Rana Plaza disaster—a heinous crime, not an accident—aroused the sympathy and solidarity of hundreds of millions of people around the world, and reminded us all of just how intimately connected we are to the women and men who make our T-shirts, trousers and underwear. It epitomized the dangerous, exploitative and oppressive conditions endured by hundreds of millions of workers in low-wage countries whose labor provides firms in imperialist countries with much of their raw materials and intermediate inputs and working people with so many of our consumer goods….”
Read the entire interview on Truthout.org
Copyright, Truthout.org. Reprinted with permission
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